food stall

[nanana]

Can;t seem to be able to get a job after my divorce. I'm guessing perhaps it is due to my age and also have been a housewife for the past 10 years to care for the family.

Still have 2 young mouths to feed. I'm thinking to rent a food stall to sell our family recipe beef noodle soup. I do not have any experience in starting up a business. Not sure what are procedures involved? Would love some advice and guidance from any of you.

Thank you very much.

p/s i'm a SPR by the way. not sure if the regulations are different for resident and non-resident?

[julymaple]

You may wish to refer to this link: http://www.enterpriseone.gov.sg/en/Cont ... Stall.aspx

Hope it helps.

[Strong Eagle]

Can;t seem to be able to get a job after my divorce. I'm guessing perhaps it is due to my age and also have been a housewife for the past 10 years to care for the family.

Still have 2 young mouths to feed. I'm thinking to rent a food stall to sell our family recipe beef noodle soup. I do not have any experience in starting up a business. Not sure what are procedures involved? Would love some advice and guidance from any of you.

Thank you very much.

p/s i'm a SPR by the way. not sure if the regulations are different for resident and non-resident?

nanana, sorry to hear that you are having such a difficult time of making a go after the divorce. As a PR you could certainly set up a hawker stand and sell your product.

Setting up your business, from the legal pespective, is easy and pretty cheap. You go to www.acra.gov.sg and set up your business.

But, if you have no experience in running a business, then you need to study a lot before committing yourself to starting this kind of business. Do you plan on renting a stall that has all equipment already available? Or will you furnish your own equipment?

Stall rentals can be expensive. Have you figured out how much it will cost to make a bowl of soup, and how much you can sell if for? Have you figured out how many bowls you must sell to cover the rent and utilities, plus the costs of food, before you can actually make a profit?

I'm guessing, too, that you will need to offer more than one food product. Look at most hawker stands... they offer 5, 10, or 20 different dishes.

[nanana]

Thank you so much for your input. I've found the stall that I'm interested to rent. Yet to call up for more info. I wish to ask for your opinion on what are the questions should I ask (apart from the obvious eg rent amount, lease term). Thanking all in advance.

[x9200]

Nanana, you seem to made up your mind already but could you tell us please a bit more about yourself? Education? Age? What job are you looking for? Are your plans to stay in Singapore? To became a citizen?

Maybe I am wrong but running a food stall does not look like the most desirable career path for someone who sounds like you (meaning educated with good English an communication skills). If you provide some more details about yourself and the job you are looking for, perhaps somebody may have some good suggestions for you, or at worst reassure you that cooking noodles is what you really want?

[nanana]

[quote="x9200"]Nanana, you seem to made up your mind already but could you tell us please a bit more about yourself? Education? Age? What job are you looking for? Are your plans to stay in Singapore? To became a citizen?

Maybe I am wrong but running a food stall does not look like the most desirable career path for someone who sounds like you (meaning educated with good English an communication skills). If you provide some more details about yourself and the job you are looking for, perhaps somebody may have some good suggestions for you, or at worst reassure you that cooking noodles is what you really want?[/quote]

X9200: no, I haven't made up my mind yet. Just so happened I came across this stall for rent. So was thinking to call up for more info and go from there.

I used to be a scientist (ages ago). Graduated with B.Sc (Hons). Age 36. Been applying for jobs in the lab for the past 6 months. Can't even score a chance for an interview. I'm guessing maybe because of my age and also I've been out of the workforce for quite some time.

I'm just hoping to move forward and start a new page of my life. Yet I find myself stuck in this depressing stage for the longest time ever. Any advice on what should I do?

[Strong Eagle]

If you are serious about wanting to run a food stall, then you really need to hook up with someone you trust and who has the experience to fill you in on the details.

For example, you asked about rents. Well, rents will vary both by hawker center and even within the hawker center depending upon location. Often, it's based upon the expected foot traffic... lots of traffic _should_ (but not always) translate to increased business.

You need to find out what the financials look like for the average hawker stand near you. I don't know about hawker stands but for Singapore restaurants, it is about 25 percent of revenues for labor, 30 percent for rent, 25 percent for food, leaving you with 20 percent for miscellaneous expenses, taxes, and of course, your profit.

I think there are better directions to kick start a new career. Let me think it over and I'll post a few ideas.

Meanwhile, think about what your transferable skills might be... for example, computer skills, volunteer work, management skills, accounting skills, personnel skills. Let us know.

[x9200]

I don't think it is your age. Very likely it is the employment gap. I would also expect BSc may not be good enough now to get a "scientist" position (you may be competing against MScs and PhDs and in Singapore degrees matter).

Some general comments as you did not put down too many details:

If you applied for a lab supervisor position you may need some upgrading as a lot happened from legal-safety perspective in past decade. In this case I would try to take some of the WDA courses (http://www.wda.gov.sg, browse and see what may suit you). As a PR you should be able to get some subsidy. This should IMO significantly increase you chances.

If you applied for a research position:

1) If you are in biosciences you probably have lower chances to get a job as this area has been developing very rapidly and you are left far behind.

2) If any other area of natural sciences (material, chemistry related etc., testing and characterization) you would still fit with no problem but need to convince your potential employer that the gap does not affected you.

I guess your science days were still outside Singapore (in Malaysia)? Regardless, maybe you could contact your last employer and if positive, even consider a temporary (1year) emigration to get some bridging experience?

In every single case when you apply for a position contact your potential future boss directly. Find her/his phone number and call her/him. This is always a correct approach but it is IMO crucial in your case for the reasons I mentioned in my previous post - you should be able to win a lot taking and communicating directly as opposite to sending some formal CV.

[nanana]

Thank you for your kind suggestion. The link that you gave me was very useful. Will try to see if there is anything suitable. Though I really wish I can get back into medical research field.

My science days were in Australia. I've committed the stupiest mistake of the entire female population i.e trust the man 110% n quit my job to be with him in his country. I didn't establish enough network and don't have that many friends here in SG. Yet, can't move back to Aust as I'll be all by myself overthere. With my youngest only 1 y.o, i' ll be needing as much support as I can get at times like this (my sis here in SG has been very helpful). So, I decided to continue living in SG and see how it goes.

Not sure about any transferable skill... Guess being a housewife/ mother has made me a better maid?? Seriously, I don't mind to be a cleaner too or a 'professional declutterer'. Perhaps this is easier than selling noodle.

[x9200]

If you don't trust you should not marry him so I don't think it was a mistake, but if this is him who failed you should make him pay especially in situation like yours where you sacrificed your career to support the family. My 2c.

Try the direct calling approach and WDA and hope you will eventually get something reasonable. Good luck Nana.

[sgpeter]

It is always difficult to transit to working world after so long of absence. But if you are not demanding, you can still find positions in office as long your computing skills are still there.